AUTHOR'S NOTES: and here we get to see what happens when a clever tribute discovers a consistent 'resource' of the arena and decides to put it to some use. It also gives birth to a certain legacy in at least two of the districts. This one's also a little longer, and I think that we will start seeing more games like this as we get farther in and as the Gamemakers continue to improve on making the games more exciting.
Happy Reading!

The 14th Annual Hunger Games

The earlier Hunger Games had been fairly exciting all in their own rights, especially with the violent ways some of the tributes had been slain, and the arenas were getting gradually more exotic, but each year the Gamemakers would attempt to outdo themselves the previous year without going too over-the-top. It was a delicate balance, keeping the "charm" of the games intact while also preventing them from becoming dull and repetitive. If the Capitol only cared about the kids slaying each other, they would have kept the same simple, bland sparse forest that had been the 1st arena. That was not enough to satisfy the Gamemakers and the Capitol for very long though, and so they gave birth to more variety as time passed, and continued to improve and enhance the 'games.

While the Hunger Games arenas were always large swathes of land in an outdoor situation, there were occasionally a few that were a little closer to home, or that had a greater sign of civilization to them. The arena of the 14th Annual Hunger Games seemed to be one of them, with the games taking place on a large and beautiful plateau that was surrounded by ore chunks and large stone ruins of a bygone civilization. Districts like '3 and '5 thought they might be able to take advantage of it, although districts that dealt with stone and mountains, such as '12 and '2 also felt like they would have an advantage.

District 1's and Elegys Galaad and Noriko Tatsumi might have had funny-sounding names, but they were also the highest-scoring tributes that year—typical career stock, really.

They and the District 2 pair, Obsidian Ronin and Kumani Ikegami, naturally teamed up before also recruiting, perhaps ironically, the District 11 pair. While they had not scored as high as Elegys or Noriko, Kada Zaltana and Raeya Zhan proved to be strong and cunning, and thus brought the career pack that year up to 6 strong.

When the games actually started though, and after the bloodbath madness had subsided, it did not take long for them to realize that there were all kinds of potential with all the metal and stone lying around. District 3's Feren Salvatore also realized this and got to work on crafting something to try and save his own skin. He had left his partner during the bloodbath, and knew nothing of what had happened to her.

The cornucopia this year was mostly deserted, given that all it really had was weapons and supplies. Food would have to be sought out elsewhere in the arena, and conventional weapons like swords, axes, bows and knives were minimal—instead there were unorthodox weapons like sickles and pickaxes, which might have been another reason why District 11 and 12 were able to thrive.

After four days of hunting tributes and reducing the total number down to 12, (9 of the 12 that were dead had been killed in the bloodbath), the career pack decided to split up, with the boys scouring the east side of the arena, and the girls remaining in the western section. They were still larger than any other alliances, and as such, they were able to hunt down the tributes from District 5 and the boys managed to corner them, finally killing them on day 7.

As the two sets of tributes worked to converge near the southern section of the arena, however, the girls managed to reach the cornucopia before the boys, only to find a most unusual sight—there were large mounds of dirt around all 24 of the pedestals. Kumani turned to Noriko and Raeya and shrugged.

"Any ideas on what happened here?" she asked. None of them were willing to move too much more, in case the place was rigged up somehow.

"No clue," Raeya shrugged, "let's hope the others get here soon. Maybe they can tell us what's up."

It was about half an hour before they showed up, and in hot pursuit of the four boys was a pack of lion-mutts that were slowly gaining on them. However, they were able to turn the tides against these creatures, suffering a few scratches and flesh-wounds, but nothing they couldn't patch up with some sponsor gifts and cornucopia supplies. When Feren saw the holes around the pedestals though, his face sunk. He knew exactly what had happened.

"Minali Otoyome…" he warned the others, "it had to be my district partner—she's dug up the mines and somehow reactivated them."
"How do you know she reactivated them?" Obsidian asked,

"Well," Feren shrugged, "I certainly doubt that she dug them up just to knock us over the head with them. I kind of knew that kid a little back in '3 anyways. She's a tinkerer to her very core. That is exactly the sort of thing she would do."

"Is she the type that might accidentally get herself blown into thousands of pieces?" Kada quipped.

"Maaaaybe," Feren thought about it a moment, "but she's smarter than she looks."
It was hard for anyone to forget the swarthy, stocky little curly-haired 16-year-old from District 3. Unusual to her district, she had a prominent country accent and a certain bounce to her step that sent her wild curls springing each time she moved.

Feren inspected the ground and found that it was not in fact rigged. If Minali had taken the mines, she had not rigged them up in this locale.

Day 8 involved the career team finding and dispatching the District 12 girl, and Day 10 found an odd rift forming in the career pack as the tributes from District 1 and District 2 grew warier of Feren and the District 11 pair. Being the stealthiest of the career alliance by far, they started to have this suspicion that Feren was secretly keeping in contact with Minali to keep her and her supposed armed landmines at bay, and that his conversations with the District 11 pair consisted of trying to find out ways to dissent before it came down to the 7 of them. Day 11 and Day 12 were when things began to break down. Minali was sighted perched atop some of the stone ruins, but before they could attack her, she whipped out a pair of what appeared to be gigantic gear wheels, which explained her ominous shadow before. They were attached to her arms almost like gigantic shields, except that Feren quickly noticed why the shields had "teeth" like a gear.

"It's a contraption!" he shouted, "and it's got the mines! get down!"
Sure enough, seconds later, Minali shifted her arms, and the "gear" on her right arm turned, firing an activated mine like a bomb towards the career pack. The blast knocked them all off their feet, critically injuring Feren and Kumani, while roughing up Obsidian, Elegys, and Noriko. Kada and Raeya did not get back up, and two cannons blared. Minali wasted no time in firing another mine from her left-hand weapon, and the careers took off running. Elegys was blasted off his feet with the 2nd shot, but he managed to get back up relatively unharmed, if not a bit dazed.

The District 12 boy was briefly forgotten as the career pack shifted their focus onto the tribute they now knew was by far the largest threat: Minali. They deducted that with such heavy contraptions attached to her arms that her mobility was limited, and that they would have to take her down with speed and before she noticed them— for she had explosively dangerous range on them.

However, this was further complicated that evening (Day 11) when Feren was sniped by that District 12 boy. Noriko, who seemed to be in the best condition of the surviving careers, gave chase, returning sometime around dawn on Day 12, with a cannon blaring to signify her kill.

However, their triumph was short-lived. Kumani and Elegys met their ends as Minali once again appeared from atop a nearby ruin within range of where the career pack was camping. Another several mines were shot their way, and while Kumani was blasted away and lay there motionless, Elegys was blasted apart by a 2nd shot that all but obliterated him. Obsidian and Noriko were roughed up from the attack, but still fairly hale. Noriko attempted to engage the District 3 girl in direct combat, but she soon learned why the weapons were designed the way they were. Those "gear teeth" served not only as a nice defense, but also as a vicious offense. The stocky girl was a bit stronger than Noriko had anticipated and was able to wield these large spiked shields with considerable ease. In truth Minali's arms were exhausted, but she knew that if she let her guard down for a moment, she would be cloven in two. She managed to fire off a mine right into Noriko's chest, but fortunately, all it did was knock the wind out of the girl and knock her back,.

"Acha, a dud!" Minali complained, but the fact that Noriko was off her feet meant that Minali could escape, and she used that time accordingly. Noriko swore as her adversary got away, and she and Obsidian rested rather than give chase. They knew that the games were drawing to an end.

They made their way to the cornucopia, hoping that Minali would either be drawn there or that she would be killed in the process.

Day 14 was rife with the distant sound of explosions. It seemed that Minali had gotten caught in a trap or was fighting something off, as there were numerous explosion sounds.

"19…" Obsidian kept count as the ground rumbled, "20… and…" he paused for a few moments, "21. She's got three shots left, unless she fired another dud."

"Good," Noriko grunted, "hopefully she gets her butt over here so we can finally kill her without those stupid weapons."

Minali had in fact fired another dud, but that meant she still had two shots left, and so she made her way to the cornucopia, a trail of dead or exploded mutts and ruins in her wake. Her large, gear-like shields could also function somewhat as wheels, and so Minali used that to help herself get around without sacrificing too much mobility, or wasting her arm strength, which was basically a commodity at this point.

However, soon her marks were in sight, and while it was fairly anticlimactic, Minali used her distance to her advantage, and fired one of her last mines. It blasted the ground several feet in front of the career pack, getting their attention. Obsidian and Noriko attempted to split up, but Minali's final mine found its mark, and perhaps ironically, blasted Noriko one way and Obsidian the other way. Two more cannons blared, and suddenly, the games had ended. Minali had become the 2nd victor from District 3, and the 14th victor of the Hunger Games overall.

Despite the horrors of the games, Minali was actually fairly used to explosions given her occupation, and her life as a victor did not change that much. She constructed a basement in her victor's mansion, turning it into a large workshop where she tinkered with this or with that. Surprisingly, she also went on to live a long, healthy life. However, she had also left a legacy not only for District 3, but for the games as a whole. The mines were simply another aspect of the arena just as the metal had been that Minali had used for her contraption. Thus, if tributes knew how to use them, it was more power to them, rather than an unfair advantage. After all… everyone knew about the mines.

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)